This glyph was borrowed later to represent de, the possessive marker in Northern Chinese, which resulted from the lenition of the literary possessive marker 之 (OC *tjɯ). Superseded the earlier 底 for this meaning. 之 is still preserved in many phrases, and in written languages to some extent, especially in Taiwan.

Cognate with the particle sense of 地 and 得, which are all homophonic but now have their respective specialised usages.

In contemporary times it is also used to represent unrelated equivalent particles in other Chinese varieties. Examples include Min Nanê (个, 亓, 兮 or ㄟ, derived from 其), Min Donggì (其), Wugeq (個) and Cantonesege3 (嘅 < 個).

Used after an attribute. Indicates that the previous word has possession of the next one. It functions like ’s in English (or like the word “of” but with the position of possessor and possessee switched).’s; of

The ha element would presumably derive from the verb ending ふ(fu), which has a 未然形(mizenkei, “incomplete form”) of ha. However, this is unlikely, as verb forms ending in -fu underwent the regular f- and h- > w- shift, which would result in a reading of *ikuwa rather than the correct ikuha.

The above phonetic discrepancy suggests that ikuha may instead be a compound of iku + ha. The iku element probably derives from root component いく(iku) meaning “shooting [arrows]”, as found in いくう(ikuu) and also in 戦(ikusa, “a battle”, original meaning “the shooting of arrows”).[1] The iku element might be related to verb 射る(iru, “to shoot an arrow”), or obsolete verb 生く(iku, “to live; to make something live, to make something go”), likely cognate with 行く(iku, “to go”).

The ha element is uncertain. It might be 端(ha, “the edge or end of something”), from the sense “the end [of the arrow's flight]”.